Consolidated Vultee XP-81

The Consolidated Vultee XP-81 was a single-seat, long-range escort fighter that the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation designed to combine a General Electric turboprop in the nose with a turbojet in the rear fuselage, the turboprop for cruising and the jet added for high speed. Two prototypes were ordered on 11 February 1944. The turboprop was not ready when the first aircraft was finished in January 1945, so a Merlin engine package from a P-51D was fitted and the XP-81 first flew on 11 February 1945. Fitted with the turboprop later, it made the first flight by an American turboprop-powered aircraft on 21 December 1945, but the engine gave only the same power as the Merlin. The capture of Guam and Saipan removed the need for a long-range escort fighter, and the contract for 13 YP-81 pre-production aircraft was cancelled just before VJ Day. Both prototypes survive in storage at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.